The USS Ohio arrives at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton to begin a Major Maintenance Period at PSNS in April 2017. The shipyard was recognized by the Department of Defense for its pace of maintenance, including breaking a record for removing the sub's mast and antenna. (U.S. Navy photo by Jeremy Moore/Released)(Photo: U.S. Navy photo by Jeremy Moore)

The Department of Defense is recognizing Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as the military's outstanding depot-level maintenance provider in fiscal year 2017, according to a press release from the shipyard.

The shipyard has been selected to be the recipient of the Robert T. Mason Award for Depot Maintenance Excellence, which will be presented at the Secretary of Defense Maintenance Awards Program this December in Florida.

The award is named after a former assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for maintenance policy, programs, and resources who championed the usage of military-owned maintenance depots for work packages rather than performing those tasks through contractors.

"Every part of the command's service to the fleet and every person who works here and those who support us played a role in this significant achievement," said Puget Sound Naval Shipyard commanding officer Capt. Howard Markle. "Our entire team earned this through hard work, commitment, innovation and pride in every corner of our command. I am continually awestruck by their accomplishments and humbled by their day in and day out attainment of maintenance excellence in all they do."

The shipyard's recognition comes on the heels of a Government Accountability Office report released in September 2017 that detailed systemic facility restoration and maintenance backlogs across all four Navy-owned shipyards, resulting in more than 13,000 lost operational days for the fleet's aircraft carriers and submarines after their maintenance availabilities could not be completed on time.

At Puget Sound Naval Shipyard alone, the report found that only 29 percent of maintenance availabilities were completed on time from 2000 to 2016, with a quarter of work packages completed more than 70 days behind schedule.

All in all, 54 out of the 76 work packages performed at the shipyard during that time frame were delayed, amounting to more than 4,700 lost operational days for nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines.

This award recognizes a number of the shipyard's notable accomplishments in the year since that report came out, including the completion of three of aircraft carrier maintenance availabilities either on time or ahead of schedule.

Shipyard crews completed the maintenance availability for the USS John C. Stennis five days early in August 2017, which was then the largest work package ever completed on a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier in a six-month time frame.

The USS Ronald Reagan's availability was completed one day early in May 2017 by the shipyard's remote detachment in Yokosuka, Japan, and the USS Theodore Roosevelt's work package was completed according to schedule in December 2016 by the remote detachment in San Diego, said shipyard spokesman J.C. Mathews.

Shipyard crews also performed at-sea maintenance on Bremerton's homeported carrier USS Nimitz while the ship was underway on deployment last year. That carrier has been in the shipyard's dry dock for maintenance since March.

In addition to those carrier availabilities, the shipyard was recognized for its work to maintain the fleet's active-duty submarines, specifically for work packages on the USS Louisiana, USS Maine and USS Ohio.

The Louisiana unexpectedly had to enter the shipyard for repair following an accident at sea when the submarine collided with a Navy support vessel in the Strait of Juan de Fuca in August 2016.

With the Maine, shipyard crews were able to remove a section of the sub's superstructure four days ahead of schedule and 20 days faster than average in October 2016 through a new process to streamline work, Mathews said.

With the Ohio, the project team was able to break a record by removing the sub's mast and antenna in 29 days, which was 12 days faster than the previous marks, Mathews said.

The shipyard's inactive submarine maintenance program was also recognized for innovations that shaved off more than 13,000 man-days of labor and saved almost $5 million during the recycling of the USS Baltimore and USS Phoenix, both of which were Los Angeles-class fast attack submarines.